Heroes and Villains
by Lingua Dii
Summary: Crossover between Crysis, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Megaman Zero, and Metal Gear Rising. Rated T for language.


A few FYI's for all new readers: This is my first crossover story, so it may be a bit "clunky". In addition, **bold** text means that the character is placing emphasis on that word or phrase, _italicized_ text means sarcasm, Guillemets («») mean thoughts, and single quotes (') within double quotes (") mean that the person speaking is quoting someone else.

* * *

«Wh... Where am I?»

"Hello, Raiden."

Raiden immediately prepared himself for battle, drawing his sword and aiming it at the strange man standing over him while he jumped a few feet away from him.

"Who are you? How do you know my name? Where's Doktor?"  
"Calm down. You're still a bit groggy from the trip, and I suspect getting a new body didn't help either. Sorry about that. My name's Mike."  
"What trip? What is this place?"  
"This is Earth. It's just... in another universe."  
"Why did you bring me here?"  
"You're not the only one."  
"What?!"  
"The others should be arriving soon... Anyway, I wanted to talk to you one at a time. Long story short, Raiden, I brought you here so you could... save what you would have lost if you had fought alone. Remember Jetstream Sam? He's part of a group known as 'The Winds of Destruction'. Kind of a dumb name, I know... But then so's 'Lightning Bolt'."  
"You... know about that." Raiden said embarrassingly as he lowered his sword.  
"Yup."  
"And what exactly would I _lose_ if I had fought them alone?" Raiden asked as he sheathed his sword.  
"...The others are here. I must go to them now. I'll be sure to send them your way, so please stay here."  
"Wait!"

Without answering Raiden's question, Mike teleported away.

«...I guess I'm staying anywhere but here.» Raiden thought. «This is probably a trap. Travels to other universes? Please...»

Using his enhanced AR, Raiden managed to find four life signs in his vicinity, two of which were next to each other.

«I should go to them, whoever they are... Maybe they can shed some light on this insanity. I'm probably just hallucinating anyway. Maybe a malfunction on one or more of these enhancements, or some kind of VR training Doktor forgot to mention...»

Meanwhile, as Raiden dashed to the closest life signs, Mike addressed someone else.

"Prophet... Nobody in history has sacrificed more than you. You gave everything you had, and then some, all to protect the Earth."

Without warning, Prophet grabbed Mike and rose.

"What the hell are you doing?"  
"You're Ceph, aren't you?! Like Rasch!"  
"Don't be an idiot! Do you think the Ceph would try the same strategy twice?"  
"My suit can't get a read on you. You **must** be Ceph."

Mike teleported behind Prophet, startling him.

"Calm the fuck down. I know your head must be messed up from all that power you absorbed, but you have to keep a clear mind. Focus."  
"...Wh-Where am I?" Prophet panted as he tried to calm down.  
"You're on Earth. Raiden will explain why it looks different. You'll meet him soon. He's headed this way right now; we don't have much time before he arrives, and I have other people to talk to. I brought you here so you could lead them. You're the only one who not only didn't lose anything permanently, but also got back something he lost. That's why I chose you."  
"You... chose me?"  
"Yes. However, the others won't see you the way I do at first. You'll have to convince them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to Isaac. **Stay here**."

Mike once again disappeared. Less than a couple of seconds later, Raiden came into Prophet's field of vision.

"Are you Raiden?" Prophet yelled.

«Does **everyone** know my name?» Raiden thought as he approached Prophet.

"Name's Prophet. I woke up here and there was this... guy."

«That must have been the other life sign I picked up.» Raiden concluded.

"He said you could explain why Earth looks different than what I remember."  
"And you just accepted that bullshit?"  
"...So you can't?"  
"He told me we were in an _alternate universe_." Raiden scoffed.  
"Hm..."  
"Don't tell me you're buying into that crap!"  
"The Ceph were opening a wormhole! Maybe... it didn't lead to their galaxy, but this universe. Or maybe their galaxy **is** in this universe."  
"Who the fuck are the Ceph? Look, just follow me. I see two more life signs over there."  
"Where? I only see one."  
"Your... suit must be broken. Let's go."

Mike was once again rushing his explanations. He was becoming increasingly annoyed by the others' complete disregard for his simple request to stay where they were.

«God dammit, Prophet... Seriously, how hard is it to just stay put? Sigh... I should've just brought them here all at once.»

"Clarke, wake up. And whatever you do, don't shoot me. We don't have time for that."  
"Where's Carver?"  
"He's not here. Long story short, this is an alternate universe. I brought you here because I was pretty sure you were gonna die. If not when you arrived on Earth, later on. Two people are coming here. The cyborg's name is Raiden. The other guy is Prophet. Talk to them; they'll explain more. Try to keep them here, if you wouldn't mind. I'll send the other two your way as soon as possible."  
"Hang on; I-"

Mike disappeared a fraction of a second after Prophet and Raiden came into view. They still saw him vanish, making Raiden rush past Isaac and leaving Prophet to explain everything to him.

"You're Prophet, right?"  
"Yes. I take it you're Isaac."  
"Yeah. Can you tell me what's going on here?"  
"I doubt you'll believe it..."

Mike arrived at the location where the fourth member had arrived. Unlike many of the others, he was already awake.

«Well, at least **he's** awake.»

"I'm surprised you're awake, Shepard."  
"Who are you?"  
"Name's Mike. I brought you here so you didn't die trying to stop the Reapers. As you may have noticed, this is not Earth as you know it. It's the equivalent of your Earth as it was over a century ago. Raiden is on his way here. He'll explain more."

Shepard stared blankly at Mike, prompting Mike to stare back at him.

"Uh... You OK? You're just... staring. Kinda creeps me out."  
"Where are my friends? My crew?"  
"They're safe, back on **your** Earth. Don't worry. Now I must go. I'll be back once I've spoken to someone else... I'd tell you to stay here, but I don't think you guys even understand what that means."  
"What?"  
"Never mind. I have to go."

Raiden had nearly caught up with Mike, yet he disappeared again, angering Raiden.

"Are you-"  
"Head that way!" Raiden yelled as he pointed back to where he came and continued to follow Mike.

«Dammit! I was so close to catching him this time! He won't get away again... What's he doing over there, anyway? There are no life signs there, aside from him. Unless... that **isn't** him. Maybe I'm finally ahead of him for once. I have to go even faster.»

Raiden was wrong. The reason his gear wasn't registering more than one life sign was because there were no organic life forms aside from Mike himself.

"Can't say I'm surprised to see you're awake, Zero."  
"...I've slept enough for one lifetime."  
"Too true. One hundred years is too much for any sentient life form, even a machine."  
"Is this a simulation?"  
"Not at all."  
"...This doesn't look like Earth. It's too... well preserved. What happened? These buildings... They seem... outdated. Archaic, even."  
"This is not your Earth. It's similar to what your Earth looked like long before you were born – long before the war – but it's not the same."  
"Where's Ciel? And Alouette?"  
"They're fine. Everyone you know is alright. You're the only one I brought here."  
"Why?"  
"Remember Omega?"

Zero stared at Mike for a long time, his face reflecting the lack of amusement over what he thought had been a joke.

"...OK, poor choice of words. Did you **hear** about Omega? The gigantic Reploid that was the frontline warrior in the Elf Wars?"  
"Yes..."  
"Well, he wasn't alone. In stopping his creator, you would have died. You would have fallen from orbit and been destroyed."  
"...Would the others have been saved?"  
"Yes... But they would have been devastated... Especially Ciel."

«Ciel...» Zero thought.

Mike was so distracted that he didn't notice when Raiden came into view as he approached the duo.

"You!" Raiden screamed while he forced himself to go even faster. "Stay right there!"  
"Well, I have to go now. See ya!"  
"I have more questions!"  
"Sorry, but he's been chasing me for a while now, and I really don't have the time nor the patience to answer every question you guys have. You'll just have to figure things out for yourselves."

Mike finally disappeared for good just as Raiden almost managed to grab him.

"Dammit!" Raiden yelled. "Do you know who that guy was?"  
"No... What are you? You've got... circuitry... implants... Are you some kind of... human-Reploid hybrid?"  
"The hell's a 'Reploid'? And why am I not registering any life signs from you? Are you a UG? No, can't be... You seem... intelligent. And even UG's register **something**."  
"My name is Zero. I'm a Reploid – a sentient artificial being."  
"You're... an AI? In a fully mechanical body?"  
"Yes."

Without hesitation, Raiden attacked Zero. He drew his sword in a fraction of a second, but Zero was faster and defended himself with his shield.

"What the hell is your problem?!"  
"I've met your kind before. You're all manipulative. The fact that you have a body only makes you more dangerous."  
"I'm not a Maverick! Look, I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you give me no choice."  
"I'm **not** giving you a choice."  
"...Very well then."

Zero drew his sword as well, aiming for Raiden's left arm, which was immediately retracted.

"Sorry. Can't allow that to happen again."

Zero ignored Raiden's quips and sliced ahead, using his shield and sword to block Raiden's blows. Although Zero was stronger, their speed was more or less equal. The shockwaves emitted from their weapons colliding alerted the others to their fight, so they all started moving toward the battle.

"You're strong, for such a small guy."  
"You have no idea."

Finally, Zero kicked Raiden away to demonstrate another of his shield's features. He tossed it at his target, causing it to fly straight at him while cutting small bushes in its path. Raiden simply jumped, expecting it to fly off in a straight line. He dashed toward Zero, convinced that he could finally defeat the Reploid if he didn't have his shield, until he heard the shield coming back. Raiden jumped once again, barely managing to dodge it, allowing Zero to retrieve his shield.

"That's a pretty neat trick."  
"...It comes in handy when I'm fighting someone who can't tell he's outmatched."  
"Really?"

Raiden ran toward Zero, intent on slicing the Reploid in half, but Zero had thought ahead and wielded his sword with both hands. The ensuing collision broke Raiden's sword outright, while cracking Zero's.

"That's not possible! This is an HF blade!"  
"I guess your sword is not as good as you think."  
"What the hell is yours made of?"  
"It doesn't matter. Your sword is gone. You are defeated."  
"I still have my fists."  
"This sword can cut through your arms like butter. Don't be an idiot. You have no weapon. Just give up."  
"I don't give up, especially not against a machine. Your sword is damaged. I'd bet a good hit with something heavy will break it."

Before either Raiden or Zero could resume their battle, Prophet and the others, having expected Raiden to stand down after his sword was broken, but now realizing he wouldn't, fired at the ground between them.

"You two! Stop it!"  
"Prophet! We've got to kill this thing!"  
"What? Why?"  
"Scan it!"  
"...It's some kind of machine."  
"Exactly! It's an AI! If we don't kill it now, it will manipulate us, turn us against each other; or worse – kill us."  
"I am **not** a threat to you. **You're** the one who attacked **me**. I was just defending myself."  
"Raiden may be right." Shepard added. "I've met AI's before. Some can be peaceful, but, where I come from, others have been consistently wiping out all intelligent life in the galaxy. It may be best to just destroy it."  
"I won't harm you if you don't make me."  
"Dammit, just shoot it!"  
"Calm down!" Prophet yelled at Raiden. "Nobody is killing anyone." he told Shepard. "Now..." Prophet added as he turned to Zero. "Who are you?"  
"My name is Zero. I'm a Reploid."  
"Who made you?"  
"I... I can't remember. I was asleep for over a hundred years after a war nearly wiped out all Reploids and over half of the human population. I wasn't allowed to finish my hibernation, so my mind did not have time to recover, like my body. Even now, although my body is fine, my memory is not. There are gaps in my memory that span several decades. I know the memory is there; I just can't... I can't access it. I don't know who made me."  
"...Alright, Zero. Welcome aboard." Prophet said as he extended his hand toward Zero.

Zero hesitantly look Prophet's hand and shook it once. He quickly figured out the man's intentions were pure and relaxed.

"Y-You can't be serious."  
"Why? Just because he's an AI doesn't mean he's not alive. As far as I can tell, he's as human as the rest of us."  
"I don't **care** what you think. It's a machine. Nothing more."  
" **He** is alive. He may be a machine, but then most of your body is mechanical as well, isn't it? Should we kill **you** just for that?"  
"I'm human. My **DNA** is human. This... thing doesn't even **have** DNA."  
"DNA... Is that what matters to you? **My** DNA is about as human as the creatures Isaac was telling me about. I altered it by absorbing Ceph DNA in order to fight them."  
"That's..."  
"Let me ask you something: what makes a man a man? Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don't think so. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them."  
"...What?"  
"Zero has done **nothing** to deserve this treatment. He's **not** a bad guy. You're not going to kill him."  
"Who made **you** boss?" Raiden continued to protest as he approached Prophet.  
"If you want to kill Zero, you'll have to go through me." Prophet whispered.

Raiden would have loved nothing more at that moment than to oblige Prophet, yet both Shepard and Isaac stepped in, telling them not to fight.

"We don't even know why we're here. As far as we know, we weren't just dropped on a random planet for kicks. Our enemies might be here as well. **All** of them. And you don't want to meet the Necromorphs."  
"If Reapers are here, it's almost impossible to win. It took the bulk of the Alliance fleet to destroy just one Reaper, and it was caught off-guard. Their power is almost as big as their collective ego."  
"What do Reapers do?"  
"They're the machines I talked about; the ones who've been exterminating every intelligent life form in the galaxy for millions of years."  
"Necromorphs don't discriminate. They just... eat everything. Absorb it into their own, deformed, bodies. They leave Markers everywhere that slowly convert beings on a planet into Necromorphs. After a long time, all Necromorphs on the planet undergo 'Convergence', as they call it. As far as I could tell, their final form is this... moon. There are several of them already."  
"What about your guys, Prophet?"  
"The Ceph are remarkably adaptable. After less than five years on our planet, they almost wiped us out. They became more adapted to our environment than any other life form. They conquered their entire galaxy and won't stop until everything is theirs. Before I was... taken, they had opened a wormhole to their galaxy, in order to bring their warriors to Earth and wipe everyone out. They tried before with a virus, but I stopped them."  
"Raiden?"  
"I don't know for sure, to be honest. I was told that I would soon fight some guys known as 'The Winds of Destruction'. I only met two of them so far. One of them... killed a good friend of mine. Just... cut his head off like it was nothing, laughing while he did it... What about you?"

Zero was so focused on analyzing Prophet's kindness that he didn't even realize Raiden was talking to him. Raiden took it as an insult and pushed him, snapping Zero out of his trance.

"Hey!"  
"What?"  
"Who are the guys you were fighting?"  
"...There were different guys every time. Now, it seems it's a gigantic Reploid named Omega, and his creator. Omega was largely responsible for the devastation caused during the Elf Wars. He destroyed Reploids and humans alike. If you stood in his way, you died."

«I just hope... **she's** not here with him.» Zero thought.

"So... What do we do now?"  
"We figure out our enemies' weaknesses, and try to combine our strengths to defeat them..." Prophet said. "We can figure out how to get home later."

« **If** we can even return home...» everyone else thought.

* * *

While the heroes told each other of their respective enemies' weaknesses and strengths, the villains had taken a more direct approach. For the past hour, most of them had been fighting each other. Now, they had calmed down somewhat and were no longer actively trying to kill each other. The Alpha Ceph still wanted to eliminate Harbinger, for fear that the Reaper would wipe it and the warriors aboard its vessel from existence. Weil was constantly trying to study Harbinger, which only served to anger it, while Harbinger wanted to harvest everyone, kill Omega, and return home.  
They were all confused as to why they were there, but most of them were too focused on survival to care. Armstrong was simply sitting, watching them argue. After witnessing the discussion for almost ten minutes, Monsoon spoke up.

"Chief?"  
"Yes, Monsoon?"  
"Shouldn't we... intervene?"  
"What? This is the greatest show on Earth! Look at that! They're about to throttle each other!"

Monsoon stared at the screaming beings in front of him, trying to figure out what Armstrong found so amusing. Monsoon was as much of an anarchist as everyone else – perhaps even more so – but people screaming was boring. He wished they went back to actually fighting, just so they'd amuse him as well.

"I think Monsoon is right." Sam said.  
"Oh? I think that's the first time I've seen you two agree."  
"It's just that... If they kill each other, we're next. We're the only humans here... sort of."

Harbinger finally had had enough and attempted to indoctrinate everyone. At first, it focused entirely on the Alpha Ceph, due to its plentiful and adaptive warriors, but its own telepathic abilities, enhanced by the thousands of Ceph warriors, had left Harbinger unable to do so. The Alpha Ceph retaliated, quickly finding out that Harbinger was unlike the other beings it had controlled. Whereas the others had only one mind per body, Harbinger had thousands – perhaps millions – of extremely powerful minds, all in one body. The Alpha Ceph wondered if it should keep trying to control Harbinger or run. If it lost the fight, Harbinger would no doubt kill it and take over its army. If it won, it might still not be able to control Harbinger well enough to do anything useful.  
An uneasy silence befell the villains as Harbinger and the Alpha Ceph tried to control each other. Armstrong was no fool – he could tell Harbinger and the Alpha Ceph were challenging each other; he just didn't know how.  
Armstrong watched and waited, trying to figure out what to do. Once both the Alpha Ceph and Harbinger seemed distracted, he stepped in.

"Gentlemen... Clearly, we were all brought here with a purpose. I suggest we talk about this, rather than try to kill each other over our differences."  
"I concur." Weil said. "We don't even know where we are."  
"This is Earth." Harbinger explained.  
"How would **you** know?"  
"My kind visited your world tens of thousands of years ago."  
"Your 'kind'? What are you?" Weil inquired, still wanting to learn more about the behemoth.  
"We transcend your understanding. Before us, you are nothing."  
"...Anyone else?" Armstrong asked, ignoring Harbinger's arrogance. "You, fishbowl guy! What's your name?"  
"This is a suit designed to sustain my life, you mongrel!"  
"And your name?"  
"You may call me Doctor Weil."  
"I... am... Omega." Omega stuttered.  
"I can't believe I'm stuck with these guys..." Armstrong muttered. "What about you, blue guy?"

The Alpha Ceph, unable to answer verbally, grunted in response as it wrote the word "Ceph" on the ground, while everyone else watched.

"Ceph?" Sam said. "I take it you're an alien?"  
"What was your first clue?" Weil chuckled.  
"Be quiet, fishbowl..." Armstrong interjected.  
"Why don't you make me, gorilla-man?"

No sooner had Weil taken a step in Armstrong's direction than Mistral intervened, wrapping her mechanical arms around Weil's cone-shaped head container.

"I wonder... How hard do I have to squeeze for this to break?"  
"Now, miss... There's no need for-"

Omega prepared to punch Mistral until she was but a smudge, unaware of Monsoon's ability to manipulate metal objects with electromagnetic fields. With Sam and Sundowner's help, they easily subdued the metal giant. A bead of sweat briefly appeared on Weil's forehead, quickly being dissolved in the liquid preserving it.

"My name is Mistral, **fishbowl**. And you do well to listen to Mr. Armstrong."  
"Enough." Harbinger said in its loud, mechanical voice. "The cycle must continue." it added, grabbing the cyborgs and Omega with its tentacles. "You are abominations and must be destroyed."

Sundowner tried cutting off one of Harbinger's tentacles, to no avail.

"I don't like where this is going, boss!" Sundowner yelled.  
"Quiet!" Armstrong retorted. "You there, spaceship-guy! What's your name?"  
"I am called Harbinger. I was the first of my kind."  
"What are you?"  
"You call us... Reapers."

Harbinger squeezed the beings enveloped in its tentacles, making them scream in pain.

"If you want our help, you'll stop this attack."  
"You have **nothing** to offer."  
"How about technology? Nanotechnology, to be precise."  
"We have mastered it."  
"Machines?"  
"We transcend them."  
"...A way home?"

Harbinger suddenly stopped trying to crush the cyborgs – though not Omega – much to Armstrong's amusement.

"You are quite powerful, but I doubt you can get home from here. You're also much too large to build something that **can** get you home... I can help you with that, if you'll let me."

Harbinger uncaringly dropped the cyborgs and Omega on the ground, earning a smirk from Armstrong.

"I take it that's a 'yes'."

«Harbinger will do what I tell it to. That fishbowl guy isn't a threat either. Mistral can handle him, and the others can handle Omega. Now all that's left... is the alien Ceph. After that... What the fuck is going on?»

Armstrong and the others looked up, facing the sun. A large object was quickly blocking it out, much to everyone's amazement.

"Is that the moon?"  
"No... It's moving too quickly."  
"Are those... tentacles?"  
"What the hell **is** that thing?"

Everyone who was at least partly human dropped to their knees in pain as a loud voice pierced their minds.

"We are hungry."


End file.
